11 Flower Seeds You Can Sow On the Snow
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need frost-free weather to sow seeds. Many seeds actually require cold exposure to germinate! Join garden expert and former organic farmer Logan Hailey to learn about eleven flowers that you can plant on top of snow.
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Snow may be covering the winter landscape, but there are many flower seeds you can still sow now! Fluffy, damp snow can provide the perfect bed for certain species to establish. Also known as winter sowing, this method can enhance the amount of sprouts—and eventually blooms—that you’ll see next season.
Though your garden may appear dormant and white, the following seeds actually benefit from freezing weather. Cold stratification is the fancy term for exposing seeds to extra cold conditions that break their dormancy and trigger germination. Many popular floral species and wildflowers require this cold exposure period in order to sprout and flourish.
If the winter blues get you down or you feel extra anxious for spring planting, get outside and sow these flower seeds in the snow as you plan for vibrant blooms up ahead.
11 Flower Seeds You Can Sow on Snow
Planting in the snow may go against your natural instincts, but it is exactly what Mother Nature does when we aren’t looking. Most wildflowers form their seedheads at the end of the summer or fall, scattering their progeny to the ground for a long winter of dormancy.
Those wild seeds rest under snow and ice until spring warmth arrives, allowing them to germinate. Intriguingly, many of them actually won’t sprout unless they experience the proper cold exposure needed to “awaken” them from their dormant slumber. Winter sowing these species in your garden can keep you busy during the coldest days and enhance your chances of abundant floral displays next year.
Poppies
January and February are generally the best months to sow poppy flower seeds in the snow. These wildflowers perform best when exposed to harsh freezes and mild thawing cycles.
You can press the tiny seeds into the upper layers of fluffy snow, ensuring that they contact the soil below. However, avoid burying too deep, or they won’t germinate. As they rest beneath the frigid white layers, the cold temperatures will break their dormancy and ensure proper sprouting in the spring.
Snapdragons
Winter sowing is very popular amongst snapdragon flower growers. These cool-season bloomers are notorious for their cold exposure requirements, with many species refusing to germinate in warm conditions.
While some gardeners opt for placing them in the refrigerator, you can use natural chilling by simply planting outside on a snowy day. January through April are sufficient times to direct seed.
Foxglove
Also known as digitalis, foxgloves produce stunning spires of tubular-shaped flowers adored by bees. But these unique plants can be finicky to germinate in warm climates where they aren’t exposed to outdoor winter chill times.
Fortunately, gardeners with snow on the ground can use the cold months to press these flower seeds onto the soil surface, where they can cold stratify and naturally awaken from dormancy in the spring.
Hollyhock
The best time to plant hollyhocks is in the fall or winter because they remain dormant through the coldest months. This stratification encourages quicker, more even germination in the spring.
Though these biennial plants take two years to produce flowers, the stunning mallow-family blooms are worth the wait! The plants are hardy to zone 3 and should be scattered atop the soil surface or pressed into a shallow layer of snow to ensure they don’t blow away.
Forget-Me-Nots
Though they look fragile, forget-me-nots are incredibly rugged flowers. They grow wild in partially shaded forest margins and meadows from Alaska to Colorado.
The native alpine forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris) is Alaska’s state flower, thriving in elevations as high as 10,000 feet. The seeds are evolutionarily adapted to winter sowing and prefer to lay dormant under the snow until spring temperatures warm the soil and initiate germination.
Goldenrod
Though it sometimes gets a bad rap, goldenrod isn’t actually the allergy-causing species that many dread in the fall. Ragweed is typically the pollen-filled culprit, while native goldenrod simply looks beautiful, supports pollinators, and thrives on neglect.
This North American native species grows wild throughout the United States and Canada, thriving in areas with ultra-cold winters. Observing an autumn field of aging goldenrod flowers provides the perfect clues to explain why you should sow its seeds in the snow.
The seedheads naturally dry and age very late in the fall. They drop their fluffy wing-shaped seeds into the wind so they can soar to new meadows to rest for the winter. Snowfall buries them to keep them safe and chilled until spring. While many sources recommend refrigerating your goldenrod seeds before sowing, you might as well plant them in the snow and let nature do the work for you.
Lupines
Known for their striking, elongated spikes of leguminous flowers, lupines are well-adjusted to high alpine conditions. Big-leaved lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus) is native to most of the West, while wild lupine (L. perennis) is indigenous to the Upper Midwest, Eastern, and Southern states.
Both species do well with winter seeding around January or February in snowy climates. They thrive in the cold and germinate earlier in the season for colorful blankets of wildflowers on even the roughest ground.
Coreopsis
Want to add an extra easy wildflower to your garden? Coreopsis, also known as tickseed, is not picky about soil or temperature. As long as the ground is not waterlogged, its pretty native yellow blooms will carpet the ground.
Fortunately, the name tickseed has nothing to do with ticks—it refers to the tiny, black shape of the seeds, which can easily be sown in the snow. Press them toward the soil and leave them to cold stratify for a month or two so they can break dormancy and germinate in the spring.
Bachelor’s Buttons
Cornflowers, or bachelor’s buttons, are increasingly popular in bouquets and ornamental beds. These lovely pincushion flowers are native to every state except Alaska, and like others on this list, they appreciate a period of chilling before they sprout.
While the seeds are sensitive to cold and won’t survive the hard frosts of winter, they are a great candidate for winter sowing. Repurpose a milk jug to plant these and other cool-loving wildflower seeds. These cool-season annuals will germinate more evenly and flower more prolifically in the spring.
Columbine
Snowy January through March are wonderful times to plant lovely columbines. Known for their nectar-rich, bell-shaped petals surrounded by radiating “spurs,” these lovely blossoms are extremely popular amongst butterflies and hummingbirds. Though they bloom in mid-spring and summer, columbines naturally overwinter under frosty conditions in the wild.
Wildflower Mixes
Most regionally native wildflower seed blends can be planted in the snow. As we discussed above, natural ecosystems mature their seeds in the autumn and drop them to overwinter beneath a layer of frost. Seeds are much more durable than plants themselves, and they will naturally “wake up” when the time is right.
Echinacea (coneflower), anise hyssop, black-eyed Susans, and yarrow are great cold-tolerant perennial options for most of the U.S.
